RealDoll Releasing Intimate AI App That Will Pair with Love Dolls

If you’ve been waiting for the dawn of AI lovers, your patience may soon pay off.

Realbotix, an Abyss Creations project to create sex robots with artificial intelligence, plans to release an intimate AI app in April, CEO Matt McMullen has told Future of Sex. Called Harmony AI, the Android app will be exclusively available from the Realdoll or Realbotix websites for a $20 yearly subscription.

The interface should appeal to folks who want to design a companion’s personality from scratch. Users will be able to pick from among 12 traits such as sexual, friendly, shy, kind, intellectual, and naïve. They’ll also decide how strong a trait is by choosing its intensity level as one, two, or three.

Want more than just someone to talk to? The app will also allow you to create a fully customizable avatar to go along with the AI’s personality. This will include full control over body and facial appearance as well as attire.

For intimate conversation, you can interact through text or voice chat, McMullen said. The default setting will be a full voice communication system with speech recognition. Have a preference for what your AI will sound like? No problem. You’ll be able to customize the voice as well.

Romantic AI

The Realbotix project’s robotic head, which will attach to silicone love doll bodies, won’t launch until the end of the year. And the full robotic body isn’t expected for release until sometime afterward. However, the AI app will be a boon to those seeking an emotional bond with a virtual being.

“There are multiple reasons that one may be attracted to the idea of an AI companion,” McMullen said. “On the most basic level, the obvious answer is that we all crave and need companionship, and some individuals struggle more than others finding that companionship in other people. The Harmony AI is an alternative for those people.”

The conversational scope of the AI will be open ended, so users will be able to talk about almost anything.

“The great part is the more people talk with the AI, the more it learns, collectively. In essence, as the number of subscribers grows, the knowledge base of the AI for all of those users will also grow with every update,” McMullen added.

RealDoll CEO, Matt, working hard on the development of our virtual reality program that will link to our AI equipped dolls! pic.twitter.com/YJqgtZaVjU

Evolving artificial intelligence

You may have noticed that Harmony is a feminine name. But worry not if your desire is to have a relationship with a male AI, because this is also in the works.

The basic app platform is genderless and the team is building gender-specific layers on top. After development of the male version is complete, subscribers will be able to easily choose different genders when creating their AIs. McMullen told Future of Sex he estimates this will happen within six months.

Annual membership for the Android app includes ongoing updates to the artificial intelligence system. Users will also receive customizations and customer support direct from the Realbotix team. Once the robotic systems launch, the app will integrate with them as well. If that’s not enough, a virtual reality integration for the AI-equipped love dolls is in development, too.

Realbotix is working on an IOS version of the app, but has run into roadblocks over content restrictions. The group is withholding release until after it has explored solutions.

Jenna Owsianik is a Canadian journalist and sex tech expert. Since 2014 she has been the editor of FutureofSex.net, the world’s leading publication on how technology is changing human sexuality, today and tomorrow.
A trained journalist with a Masters of Journalism from The University of British Columbia, Jenna’s reporting has appeared on Futurism.com, Al Jazeera English, CTV British Columbia online, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS 60 Minutes, Global News, and CKNW Radio in Canada and the United States.